About this site

I have been interested in CNC routers after reading about the Shapeoko and other similar machines. When Printrbot announced their first CNC, I decided to finally take the plunge.

My Beta 01 arrived in December 2014, and I have been having fun and learning along the way. I thought I'd make an effort to organize my notes in one place, hoping it may be useful to other Beta 01 owners or users of similar machines.

In September 2015, Printrbot started selling a slightly updated version of this CNC as well as a new Crawlbot. In the beginning of 2017, the Crawlbot became the only CNC offered by Printrbot. And then sadly, in July 2018, Printrbot closed its doors.

I've seen Brook Drumm talk at MRRF, and his energy and enthusiasm is evident and contagious. I'm so happy to see Printrbot was relaunched in 2020!

By the way, if you are a Printrbot CNC owner and would like to contribute to this site, feel free to send me a message. Thanks! -Phil

So, what is this site all about?

The Printrbot CNC Beta 01, released near the end of 2014, is Printrbot's first CNC that shipped to end users. It is billed as a beta unit with a limited production run in its current form. It shipped pre-assembled, and included:

  • A frame made of aluminum and steel

  • All the electronics, including a TinyG, Raspberry Pi (pre-loaded with serial-port-json-server for use with chilipeppr.com), 5 stepper motors, and limit switches (2 on each of X and Y, 1 on Z)

  • Makita RT0701C 1-1/4 HP trim router, which has a 1/4" collet

  • QTC (OSG) 402-2500 1/4" square-end carbide 2-flute endmill (at least mine came with one - the website says an endmill is not included)

What is not included:

  • Wasteboard (although 4 bolts are included to hold it down). See my Creating a Wasteboard section to see what I did.

  • Anything to hold down the workpiece to the wasteboard

  • Cat5 cable to connect Raspberry Pi to your network

Printrbot support resources

Printrbot's home for support documentation for the Beta 01 is no longer available, but you can find the three original documents Printrbot provided here.

Where to start?

As I explore this CNC, I create new sections on this site to keep things (relatively) organized. You can find the current list of topics on the upper left of this page. If you just unboxed your CNC Beta 01, you might want to take a look at the Creating a Wasteboard section to see one option for getting a wasteboard installed.